


Small Hours Long Ago

by hollycomb



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Marathon Sex, Mission Fic, Sharing a Room, Snoke Being a Dick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-31
Updated: 2017-08-31
Packaged: 2018-12-22 07:17:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11962428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollycomb/pseuds/hollycomb
Summary: Once upon a time they drove each other to sexual madness in a hotel room while on assignment. It was the best week ever.





	Small Hours Long Ago

**Author's Note:**

> Now featuring [this amazing artwork](http://5ovspades.tumblr.com/post/165573413497/for-small-hours-long-ago-by-hollycomb) by [5ovspades](http://5ovspades.tumblr.com/)!!! Perfectly captures the most essential mood here :')

Hux had developed a systematic personal routine by their third cycle on LaBounty, making use of local resources and the supplies they had brought. Despite being told this mission would be complete two cycles earlier, their contact was “delayed indefinitely” and they had been ordered by the General herself to stay in place until told otherwise. She trusted Hux alone to conduct this final step in negotiating financial support for the Order’s still-precarious future, and while the delay was frustrating, Hux could manage. He’d grown up rationing supplies, obeying shifting orders, and waiting for a precise pinhole of opportunity that would allow him to maximize what little he had to work with. He was a patient problem solver and knew how to adapt to a changing situation. He didn’t even need a bodyguard, but traveling with one was not optional as per orders. 

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re the most boring person they’ve ever met?”

Ren asked this while Hux was giving himself a shave at 19:00, just as he had the day before. Routine was helpful in situations like this. Hux wasn’t going to attempt to explain this to Kylo Ren any more than he was going to respond to that insincere inquiry. 

“The answer is yes,” Ren said. He was sprawled on a dingy armchair near the window, watching the street while he criticized Hux from the corner of his eye. “Because I’m telling you that right now. And I’ve lived with literal monks.” 

“Literal monks,” Hux said, in a mocking imitation of Ren’s accent. “What does that even mean?”

“I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.” 

Hux suppressed the urge to dignify this latest idiotic comment with even a snort. Ren was twenty-six years old but obviously stunted in some way, perhaps because he’d been raised by a hodgepodge of factions that apparently included monks. He was allegedly very impressive in combat and already an accomplished assassin, but in private conversation he acted as if he were sixteen at most. Hux had just turned thirty and had spent most of the three decades of his life as an adult held to an exacting standard in all respects, interpersonal communications included. He’d never been coddled, and by five years of age he was placed in command of his elders. After three cycles of suffering Ren’s presence he longed to answer Ren’s bragging by mentioning this, but Ren would only laugh. He couldn’t possibly understand, not having grown up in the Order as Hux had. He was an outsider, only given status here because of his ability to use the Force, a gift he was born with and one that he wielded with all the humility of a toddling Hutt whose slovenly parents had handed him a blaster. 

“Now you’re going to sit there and read reports for two hours,” Ren said, nodding to the room’s single bed, a slouchy thing in the center of the room with sheets that had come pre-stained. “And then you’re going to hydrate a noodle bowl for dinner. And you’ll only eat half.” 

“So flattering that you’ve taken such close note of my on-assignment habits.” 

“There’s nothing else to take note of. Has the General comm’d you?” 

“She’s got better things to do than repeat instructions already given. Nothing about our mission has changed. Doesn’t your mystical cult teach patience?”

Any mention of Ren’s Force-brethren seemed to be a sore spot. Hux had been told that Ren was valuable to the Order because of his rarity: most Force users had been exterminated or chased deep into hiding places they would never leave. 

“Did the droids who raised you teach you about balance?” Ren asked when Hux turned from the sink, patting his freshly-shaven face with a towel. 

“I’m familiar with the concept,” Hux said. He hoped that Ren hadn’t found out somehow that he had actually been raised by a droid, at least until he could walk. 

“Are you?” Ren turned from the window and gave Hux the smirk that somehow didn’t involve his lips: it happened in his eyes, a narrowing of his attention that was unkindly scrutinizing. 

“I suppose you think you could teach me something about it?”

Hux felt himself flushing. He hadn’t meant it to come out sounding-- Like that. It was something about the way that Ren was looking at him, or the fact that Hux was standing at a sink in only his uniform pants and undershirt, his suspenders hanging down over his thighs. He hadn’t shared close quarters like this in years. Even showering with Ren lurking on the other side of the thin wall that separated the fresher from the bedroom felt strange, though Hux had once showered among twenty cadets at a time. He hadn’t realized how much he’d come to value and guard his privacy in recent years, until now. That was all.

“I could teach you lots of things,” Ren said. 

Hux snorted and turned back to the sink to hide his flush, pretending to look for stray bits of shaving foam along his jaw. It was rumored that Force users could read minds under the right circumstances. Since learning this Hux had been concerned that Ren had picked up on Hux’s surprise upon seeing Ren’s unmasked face for the first time a few months ago. As far as surprises went, it was not-unpleasant one. Ren’s features had a kind of gleaming roughness that Hux found interesting and sometimes even appealing, usually only when Ren was asleep. 

“But you’d be a poor student,” Ren said. He watched as Hux settled onto the bed with his data pad and prepared to review reports, just as Ren had predicted. “You’re too set in your ways,” Ren said when Hux glanced up at him. “Stubborn.” 

“You don’t know me,” Hux said, this childish statement escaping before he could stop it. Ren laughed, and Hux regretted playing to his bait. He was normally good at dealing with arrogant people, but something about Ren’s particular brand of cocky needling managed to get to him, or at least it was beginning to now that they’d been alone together for three cycles 

“I know plenty,” Ren said. He was fond of spreading his long legs in Hux’s general direction and he was doing it now, one foot propped on the windowsill and the other resting on the ground. “I’m observant.” 

“And you’ve observed that I’m unbalanced? I think you’re projecting.” 

“That just proves you don’t really know what I mean by balance.” 

“Oh, please educate me then,” Hux snapped. He knew he should be giving the reports on his data pad his attention, not the overgrown child who was splaying at him and leering suggestively, but the reports hadn’t changed much since Hux reviewed them that morning. Time seemed to have slowed to a crawl, and there was no sign yet of when they would be able to leave this damp motel room on this muggy backwater with the financing contract they needed. Ren was an irritating, inefficient braggart, but he was entertaining under certain circumstances. More so than Hux’s data pad, currently. 

Ren took his foot off the windowsill and arched his back, stretching while still seated. He glanced at the rain-slick street outside and licked his lips. 

“I’m talking about disorder,” Ren said. “Calculated chaos.” 

“That’s a contradiction.” 

“Not necessarily.”

Hux rolled his eyes and looked down at his data pad. His heart was beating a little faster, mostly because of the way Ren was looking at him. Ren was reckless, but powerful enough to get himself out of the messes he’d created, at least so far. Not everyone had that luxury. 

“C’mere,” Ren said after Hux had ignored him successfully for a few moments, admittedly only so he could read the same line about excavations on Jakku three times over. 

“Come where?” Hux asked. Ren was looking out the window, intent on watching something outside. Hux sighed in protest when Ren beckoned with a crooked finger, but put aside his data pad and rose to see what was going on.

The window was narrow, and peering out of it necessitated standing close to Ren. His big nose was almost pressed to the glass as he pointed down at a Twi’lek woman with purple lekku who stood below, just outside of a building across the street that Ren swore was a brothel, despite the sign only advertising a bar and dancers. 

“I’ve seen her waiting there around this time twice now,” Ren said. “I think she might be a spy.” 

“For whom?”

“Don’t know, but I’m keeping an eye on her.” Ren shrugged and looked up at Hux. “Not like there’s anything else to do until our guys get here.” 

“Our guys,” Hux muttered, mimicking Ren’s accent again. He kept his eyes on the Twi’lek outside. She was trying to play it cool, watching the foot traffic from over the top of the flimsiplast flyer she was pretending to read. LaBounty was frequently used for meetings like the one they had scheduled with their financier, who was secretive and very selective about the logistics of any in-person negotiation. Hux already suspected that the indefinite delay was either a test of their patience or just a way to toy with them, a kind of power move. 

“I mean there are other things to do,” Ren said. He was staring up at Hux, his legs open around the space where Hux stood. “But they wouldn’t be in keeping with your schedule.” 

“My schedule,” Hux said absently, pretending that he was still paying close attention to the Twi’lek. It was humid near the thin window, though the worst heat of the day had burned off behind the persistent, reddish rain clouds. The whole city looked like a red light district because of the natural atmosphere, which was perhaps why it had essentially become one. “Do you know anything about our financier?” Hux asked, attempting to change the subject. Ren had taken hold of the left loop of Hux’s lowered suspenders and was examining it like it was some alien artifact. 

“He’s affiliated with my mentor,” Ren said. 

“I didn’t know you had one of those.” 

Ren grunted. “Do you really care? Wouldn’t you rather continue your lesson about balance?”

“What are you doing to my strap?” Hux asked, though he knew. The humidity from outside seemed to have attached itself to his cheeks, and he didn’t mind. He wasn’t as buttoned-up as Ren assumed. He was flexible, and only raised his eyebrows slightly when Ren grasped the other loop of his suspenders and tugged on both, pulling Hux closer to him.

“Your strap,” Ren said. He was staring up at Hux from beneath his thick, dark, admittedly lovely eyelashes. “That’s what you call these? Do you wear them like this on purpose, so that they’ll look like handles for grabbing? Hoping I’d notice?”

“You love flattering yourself.” Hux’s lips were trying to tug into a grin. He could feel his nipples harden against his undershirt. “I’m older than you are, you know.” 

“Yeah, so?”

“So it’s really kind of funny, you assuming you have something to teach me about balancing work with recreation. And that you think you’d have to seduce me rather than just asking.” 

“Asking for what?” Ren’s eyes were openly hungry; he hid nothing that he felt. Hux envied this a bit, though it also repulsed him. It wasn’t wise, even when you had as much power as Ren commanded. 

“You’re asking me to fit you into my schedule, aren’t you?” Hux touched Ren’s jaw, which was rough with stubble, warm against his palm. “Hmm? Be an adult and present your proposal. The kind of fuck you’re after would probably only take ten minutes. I can move some things around in my routine to accommodate that.” 

Ren stood so abruptly that Hux’s breath caught. Ren could be such a comical, over the top figure, with his cape and his mask and the ridiculous red sword that Hux hoped wasn’t an overcompensation for something. It was easy for Hux, who had never been afraid of him, to forget how swift and decisive Ren could be when the situation called for action. Hux had noticed Ren staring at him before, particularly since they arrived here, but had never been the focus of all his intense energy. He felt caught in a tractor beam and didn’t dare move. 

“Ten minutes?” Ren said. “That’s how long it takes to fuck in your world?” 

“You and I share a world, last I checked, and that was more of my assumption about you personally.” 

Ren walked forward and Hux allowed himself to be backed toward bed, not only embarrassed but genuinely surprised by his relief that they were headed in that direction. His reports could wait; he had been curious, on a personal level, and investigating the physical properties of a powerful Force user seemed like a good use of his time when it came to the Order’s initiatives, too. They were trying to integrate these ‘Knights’ into their armory, after all. Hux decided it was not only convenient at present but smart in general to learn as much as he could about them, sexual habits included, and Ren was the only one who’d shown his face. This seemed like a good start: moving toward the bed with Ren, becoming erect, etc.

“I’m not inexperienced,” Ren said. He flattened one big hand onto Hux’s chest and gave him a push. It wasn’t hard enough to send Hux sprawling back onto the bed, but something else helped him down with a kind of gentle pressure, a pillow of what felt like air ballooning behind him as he was eased down onto the mattress. 

“Don’t do that,” Hux said, shivering. His nipples were very hard beneath the thin fabric of his undershirt now, obscenely obvious while he lay there spread out for Ren, his cock beginning to tent his trousers. 

“Do what?” Ren asked, feigning innocence. “The Force is naturally integrated into all my passions. Fucking included. If you’re afraid to experience it, tell me now and I’ll go for a walk in the rain instead.” 

“A walk in the rain?” Hux laughed and gripped the sheets in his fists, pulled tight all over and needing something to hold onto already. “Your passions? Well, I was right about you talking a lot during sex, anyway.” 

“You’ve thought about what it would be like? Getting fucked by me?”

“Did I not just disclose my ten minute duration prediction?” 

“Ten minute duration prediction,” Ren said, imitating Hux’s accent now-- Poorly. “We’ll see. Turn over.” 

Hux considered protesting, but couldn’t come up with any sane reason why would he insist on facing Ren during sex. He rolled onto his belly and folded his arms under his chin, trying to seem nonchalant. It had been a while since he’d had an opportunity for sex with a partner, and anything more indulgent than a blow job was rare. It required too much trust, but he was stuck with Ren anyway, and there was no reason not to luxuriate a bit. Hux smirked against his forearm when he thought of how absurd it was to associate the place they were in with any kind of luxury. He gasped when Ren pulled his left suspender strap back and let it snap hard against his arse. 

“Ow,” Hux said, turning to glare at him. 

“Thought you might be into that.” Ren smirked, but suddenly his attempt to appear confident seemed cheap. Seeing through it made Hux less annoyed that he’d tried something creative. 

Hux shrugged one shoulder. “I’m not opposed to some roughness,” he said. “Just don’t do anything that would compromise my ability to perform my duties.” 

“Like fucking you so hard you can’t sit down without feeling it?” 

Hux actually liked that, but there was a fine line between well-fucked and wincing. “I don’t like marks on my neck,” he said, because that was his usual line to eager partners, pre-sex. “And I bruise easily, so take care.” 

For some reason this seemed to particularly excite Ren. His eyes darkened and he nodded, looking hypnotized. Hux glanced down to make sure that Ren was hard. His eyes probably widened, because when he returned his gaze to Ren’s face he looked proud of himself.

“I’m big,” Ren said, stroking his hand over the bulge. “We could switch places, if you’re too delicate to take this.” 

Hux laughed at Ren calling his cock ‘this.’ “I’ll manage,” he said. He had some doubts about Ren’s hygiene and wasn’t eager to interact with his arse. “Have you had your shots?”

“Have I--” Ren boggled at Hux. He seemed offended, then just amused. “That’s what we say about pets, where I come from.”

“Well, I’m asking about preventative stims! I don’t know where you’ve put that thing before now, and I’m inoculated against the full spectrum of--” 

“So am I! We invented those inoculations.” 

“Who is we?” 

“The-- Never mind, yes, of course I’m inoculated. Fuck, I knew sex with you would be like this.” 

“Like what?” Hux rolled onto his side, glaring. 

“I don’t know, an exam. A lecture.”

“Then why are you panting for it?”

Ren dropped onto Hux and flattened him to the bed, pinning his shoulders. Hux could hear how loud he was breathing. He didn’t care. Unless he heard the chime of his comm, this was time he was taking for himself. Ren would posture and growl and flaunt his big cock, but Hux was the one who would get what he wanted: information, strategic intimacy, and a good pounding, unless ten minutes was being optimistic. It was hard to tell, with Ren, but soon Hux would know. 

“I’ve just wondered,” Ren said, and he pressed his thumb into the hollow of Hux’s throat, just shy of painful against his hammering pulse. “What you’d be like, coming apart.” 

“Take me apart, then.” 

Ren’s eyebrows twitched up. He was either surprised or pleased by that, maybe both. He hooked his thumb into collar of Hux’s undershirt and pulled it low enough to strain at the shoulder seams, exposing the pink flush that had spread downward from Hux’s neck. 

“Do you get red all over?” Ren asked. “When your legs are spread? When you’re wide open?”

“You keep posing questions like this instead of taking the initiative to find out.” 

Ren looked lost for a moment, annoyed, then impressed. Hux imagined most of the partners Ren had were weak at the knees for any display of self-assured power or whatever he thought he was projecting. Ren was imposing, and could walk into any cantina and have more than one set of interested eyes on him, mask on or not, but it was all a front for some far deeper insecurity. Hux had seen that from the start. He was familiar with the concept. 

As if he’d sensed Hux’s thoughts, and perhaps he had, Ren didn’t hesitate to debauch him after that. He ripped Hux’s undershirt off and then pulled back to remove his own. Hux had caught a glimpse of Ren’s bare chest the day before, when Ren walked from the fresher to the pile of clothes he’d left on the end of the bed. At the time, Hux had tried not to look. Now he put his hands everywhere, then his mouth, until Ren pinned him with a growl and opened his mouth over Hux’s left nipple like this was a wrestling match, both of them trying to devour the other before they could be eaten up by their opponent. Hux didn’t actually mind lying back and letting Ren tongue and bite at his chest. He feigned defeat and arched up against Ren’s mouth with a moan, letting Ren scrape his teeth lower and bite at the soft flesh of his belly. This would leave marks, but Hux didn’t oppose any that he could hide beneath his uniform. He even wanted them, suddenly, which had never been true before. 

Ren flipped him onto his stomach again before tearing down his pants, Hux’s briefs coming away along with them. He teased hot kisses at the cleft of Hux’s arse before going to this pack for lubricant. 

“Of course you brought that,” Hux said, his cheek resting on the mattress while he watched Ren upcap it. 

“Comes in handy for all sorts of things.” 

“Ha. You were hoping to fuck me.” 

“What a masterful deduction, no wonder they call you a genius.” 

Hux turned his face against the sheets to hide how flattered he was. People called him a genius? Who? He gasped when Ren spread his cheeks and exposed his hole, dragging hot fingertips over it and then up again, still teasing. Hux realized then that his taunting about Ren only needing ten minutes to fuck had probably set him up for a full hour of foreplay, almost entirely for the purpose of Ren proving him wrong. Hux rolled his hips, dragging his hard cock against the mattress and sending a warm ribbon of pleasure down his spine. It was rare that he was allowed a moment to anticipate something indulgent as opposed to difficult, harrowing, tedious, perfunctory, required. Ren wasn’t wrong about him that sense. He inched his thighs apart for Ren’s slicked, probing thumb, thoroughly fine with an hour of foreplay or whatever else. As long as they had the time, they might as well use it. 

Wanting to give himself some credit for what followed, even as he felt increasingly boneless and surrendered to Ren’s ministrations, Hux had to assume that Ren was using the Force to judge how close or not Hux was to coming, when to apply pressure and when to gentle his touches until Hux was almost sobbing with need of more. The first time Hux heard himself moaning Ren’s name he was aghast, and then Ren tongued his arse again and he didn’t care anymore. Hux was a writhing mess by the time he came, and Ren hadn’t even used his magnificent-looking cock yet, except to drag the hot, hard shape of it against Hux’s thighs and calves like a promise. 

“You do get all red,” Ren said, smoothing his thumbs over Hux’s burning cheeks as he recovered from his orgasm, come cooling on his heaving chest. There was something tender about the gesture, especially when Ren did it a second time. Hux used this introduction of seeming tenderness as an excuse to investigate the texture of Ren’s hair. As he’d suspected it was soft, silky, slightly damp with sweat the base of Ren’s neck. 

“I’m going to suck your cock,” Hux said, pulling Ren onto him again. “Would you like that?” He nipped at Ren’s fat bottom lip without actually catching it between his teeth, mindful of where Ren’s mouth had just been.

“Yeah,” Ren said, breathing this down against Hux’s mouth. They hadn’t kissed yet. Hux would ask Ren to clean his teeth first, if it came to that. He’d lost track of how long Ren had worked on him, but it didn’t matter. Hux wasn’t finished, despite his climax. There was so much more he wanted to do to Ren, and so much more he needed done to him. 

Hux sucked cock like a true student of the art and he knew he was good at it. He tried to make Ren come, despite wanting to be flipped over and fucked into the mattress. Ren was a young man; he would be able to get it up again before long. This was already becoming a marathon in Hux’s imagination, and a faint, distant warning signal sounded in acknowledgment of this thought. He noted it but continued, trying to get as much of Ren into his mouth as he could manage. Though he was sure he was doing well, and though Ren’s thighs were trembling powerfully in his hands, eventually he wasn’t able to outlast Ren in terms of his willingness to continue versus seeing Ren come undone like this. 

“Fine,” Hux said, pulling back to blink up at Ren, who was open-mouthed and flushed but holding it together well otherwise, his hands smoothing again and again through Hux’s ruined hair. “Okay, you’ve-- You’ve shown me, now. My jaw is sore, and-- Are you even close?”

“Yes.”

The strain in Ren’s voice was pleasing. Hux suppressed a smug grin and kissed the leaking head of Ren’s dick. 

“You want to come inside me, don’t you?” Hux said, giving Ren his sweetest look, one he hadn’t employed since he was a cadet. He’d never expected to use it on someone younger than himself.

Ren nodded, unblinking, and pressed his lips together. Hux flopped back onto the bed and groped for the bottle of lube. Ren was kneeling over him, his back straight and his hands hanging at his sides now that Hux’s hair was out of reach. Ren’s cock was so hard and red that it looked like it must hurt, and Hux had never been so eager to soothe someone’s pain with the tight caress of his arse. He felt a bit insane, like he had forgotten the point of sex or at least the point of this sex precisely, but it seemed a kind of insanity that would serve him well, a concept he once would have called a contradiction of terms. It was just the weight and slight upward curve and perfect thickness of Ren’s cock, also the clean yet salty taste, and the way Ren looked at him, the thick air on this nowhere planet, the wet light through the window. A truly inspired combination of factors, Hux thought, and he reached down to spread himself open, showing Ren how ready he was to finally add a hard fucking to the mix. 

Ren had held back when he was in Hux’s mouth, not wanting to choke him; Hux had felt it in the shake of Ren’s thighs and the way his measured breath came out choppy. Normally Hux would have been insulted, but with a cock the size of Ren’s on his tongue, he appreciated the restraint. 

Once Ren had worked his way into Hux’s arse, there was no holding back. He fucked in hard, fast snaps of his hips, grunting with the effort and spanking Hux’s arse with his balls. Hux was so gone for Ren’s dick at this point that he only called for more, harder, and didn’t care when he considered that he might be heard on the other side of the room’s thin walls. Then he imagined their distinguished, immeasurably wealthy contact standing right outside, having arrived at last only to end up hearing all of this. The thought of someone-- of _him_ , faceless and important --listening as Ren pummelled Hux’s wide open arse like this made him shout and come hard, his hole clenching up in a kind of horrified ecstasy that sent Ren over the edge, too. 

Their contact was not actually outside. They were alone together in the aftermath, breathless and sweat slick. Hux felt like the street outside: dirty, wet with slime, seedy and well-used. He wasn’t sure he liked it until Ren dragged him close and pulled the mussed bedsheet up to mop at the come on Hux’s chest, which seemed respectful. Hux relaxed into a feeling of deep, earned exhaustion that he’d never before associated with sex, drew his trembling legs up and rested his knees against Ren’s side. His arse was a throbbing mess and on second thought it just felt good. The looks Ren kept giving him helped. They were cautious peeks, like Ren was checking Hux’s eyes for a full report on how good that had been, needing to hear it spelled out even after Hux had come all over himself twice. 

“Well?” Hux said. He tucked a sweaty strand of Ren’s hair back. This exposed a large ear that Hux was suddenly fond of. “Go on, tell me how long you lasted. I’m sure you were timing it.” 

“I wasn’t,” Ren said, but then he smirked and turned over to look at the cheap chronometer on the bedstand. “Uh. About fifty minutes.” 

“That’s all?” Hux felt like he’d traveled to another system and returned. 

Ren’s face fell. “It felt like a long trial to you?”

“No!” Hux didn’t know how to explain that he felt transformed, like he had left his body and returned to it, because in fact it had been like residing more fully in his body than he ever had before. But that was ludicrous: he was still riding the high of two intense orgasms after too many cycles without any sexual attention beyond his own hands. “It was good,” Hux said, trying to rein in his tone lest any of that other nonsense spill out. “You just tortured me for so long before giving me your dick. But in a commendable way that added to the experience,” he said when Ren looked at him uncertainly. “I enjoyed myself from start to finish.” Now he was growing annoyed that he _was_ giving Ren a report on his satisfaction, as if he’d been tricked into it, and he had, really. He didn’t normally sing the praises of the dick he’d just taken to anyone, least of all the one who’d just given it. “I’m going to clean up,” Hux said. He sat with some effort, wishing he could sleep. “Will you hydrate the noodles?”

To Hux’s delight, Ren did as he asked. When Hux emerged from the fresher there were two steaming bowls of noodles sitting on the small table across from the bed, which regrettably featured no chairs. 

“I figured you’d want a whole one,” Ren said, gesturing. He was still nude, which Hux found interesting, and he seemed to have combed or at least artfully arranged his hair. “Since we worked up an appetite.” 

That sounded like a line from a holoporn, but Hux let it slide. He smiled agreeably and ate a full portion of noodles with the ratty towel from the fresher around his waist and his hair wet, enjoying the looks that he kept catching Ren giving him: admiring, nervous, somewhat tamed. Hux had accomplished this sort of thing before with his arse, but only with much weaker men. Ren was different. He had lasting value, and every time his gaze met Hux’s through the noodle steam a kind of warmth was reignited within Hux, spreading a bit further from the center of his chest with each successive glance. Hux’s mind was wheeling with wild plans for a long-term allyship by the time they finished their meal. 

They fell into a different sort of routine after that, still awaiting news of their contact’s long-delayed arrival as cycle after cycle passed under the same dim reddish sky that barely lightened during LaBounty’s daytimes. Interludes of languid sex broke up the monotony, sometimes in the chair by the window so they could keep an eye on the street outside while Hux bounced in Ren’s lap. They even made a kind of game of it, both trying to outlast the other before moving again. Hux was very good at this and Ren was less patient; he called Hux a cockwarmer, whispering this hotly into his ear, and instead of jabbing an elbow back into Ren’s sternum, Hux rolled his hips and came in Ren’s hand. He felt rather unlike himself in Ren’s grip, but it wasn’t a bad sensation in this strange place where they’d been sequestered, with this strange man who had never outgrown an obsession with making every free moment about sex. Hux was sore but similarly preoccupied, due to the circumstances, and though he got over his qualms about interacting with Ren’s arse he kept coming back for more of Ren’s cock, even going so far as to nuzzle it with his face when it was soft and Ren was only half-awake. Ren laughed under his breath, tugged on Hux’s hair and got hard for him; he was always up for more. 

The nights on LaBounty felt very long. It was truly a city made for the nighttime, with fights out on the street, glass breaking at intervals and a rainbow of neon shining in every puddle. There was some hover traffic but most vehicles that passed on the side street outside their window were land-bound. As there was only the one chair, and since the bed was almost too sex-wrecked to even sleep in, Hux got into the habit of perching on Ren’s lap at the window so they could observe the nighttime scenery together. This posture would have been embarrassing if Ren didn’t kiss Hux’s bare shoulders worshipfully while he sat there, his lips just brushing Hux’s skin with a reverent caution, as if he was in the presence of some enchanted creature and not the man he had just ejaculated inside, though perhaps for Ren that amounted to enchantment. 

Ren also laughed at Hux’s every critical remark about passerby. He shared Hux’s disdain for most people, Hux had learned. This had been true of many people Hux had served with in the Order and those he’d attended the Academy with as well, but something about Ren’s judgment of others felt different, both less strategic and more accurate, and Hux liked the way Ren’s stomach tightened beneath his weight when he laughed. He liked the way Ren’s neck smelled and the way Ren’s rough fingertips sought the soft insides of Hux’s thighs like he couldn’t resist them, even if they’d just fucked. He liked that Ren wanted to watch him bathe and that Ren did so without touching himself, at Hux’s command. He liked how sex with Ren felt like a game, but not a cruel one. It was a game they played together rather than against each other. They were at opposite ends of sex, necessarily, and yet on the same team.

Hux realized he was going mad, but the reports on his data pad spat out almost identical statistics daily, and watching the Order run smoothly from afar could only hold his attention for so long. Furthermore, he was gathering information, interviewing Ren in lazy moments when he was off guard. There was a method to his madness, he told himself.

“What’s that like?” Hux asked when they were lying on the bed together as their seventh cycle in the motel room turned over into the eighth. Ren had used the Force to levitate a packet of candied pacc fruit above the bed, just out of Hux’s reach. There was a junky food shop downstairs on the ground floor of the motel, and they had dared a few trips there after the instant noodles became so familiar that the taste of them threatened Ren’s sanity, according to him. What sanity, Hux had said, but he hadn’t forbidden the excursions. No one had expressly told them not to shop nearby. 

“What’s what like,” Ren asked, muttering. He was heavy at Hux’s side and close to sleep, though still awake enough to move the candied fruit packet higher every time Hux tried to pseudo-casually snatch it out of mid-air. 

“Your powers, this ability. Does it just feel like another appendage to you? Something that reaches out for what you want?”

Ren sniffed. Something about the way his bicep tensed under Hux’s cheek made him feel rebuked. 

“I suppose I could never understand,” Hux said, sarcastic and edging toward bitter. He’d always resented those who were born with plenty, powers or otherwise. They were the ones who didn’t understand, never could. 

“It’s just funny,” Ren said. “The idea that the Force brings me what I want.” 

“You know what I meant. What you want in the sense of fetching something from across the room-- Never mind.” Hux thought of rolling away from Ren like an angry spouse expecting to be chased and coddled. Instead he bit the flesh of Ren’s bicep, which was maddeningly firm against his teeth. 

“I like it when you’re feral,” Ren said, dark eyes glittering with interest as he watched Hux sink his teeth in a bit deeper. Hux wondered if it hurt. He wanted to leave his mark on Ren, but didn’t necessarily want to cause pain. In fact he definitely didn’t. 

Hux stopped biting. “Tell me about growing up in the New Republic,” he said, because by then Ren had admitted he was raised on a planet where those people maintained a pretense of rule. 

“Why should that information be useful to you.”

“Well, because I intend to destroy them.”

“You, personally.”

“You know what I mean. Forget it.” Hux turned onto his back. Ren could get moody when he was overtired. Hux hated that he knew this now. He fumed, staring up at the shifting lights on the ceiling and longing for his routine above the sterile ship they’d come from, in a room that didn’t reek of sex, among people who didn’t know how to smirk with only their eyes. 

“I envy you,” Ren said. 

Hux snorted. “No, you don’t. Wait, why?”

“You’ve always known exactly what you want. You were shown the path that had been set for you and you accepted it. Even with me, in this place. You’re so light on your feet when you get what you want. So certain that it’s what you should have.” 

“You should sleep.” Hux’s heart was beating faster; he didn’t like this, suddenly, and remembered Ren describing himself as observant. Perhaps he was gathering information, too, but for whose benefit? “You’re rambling out nonsense.” 

“It was lonely,” Ren said. 

“What?” 

“Growing up in the New Republic. But I think I would have been lonely here, too. Under the Order, I mean. At your Academy. Unless we were there together.” 

“You and I?” Hux grinned into the darkness at the thought. “We would have torn the place apart. My cunning and your power? Nobody would have been left standing. Only those who bowed to us would have been spared.” 

Ren laughed, and Hux felt something cold plummet through him. “No, I love that,” Ren said, tugging Hux closer when he tried to shift away. “That’s perfect. I agree.” 

“Get off,” Hux muttered, elbowing him. 

Ren didn’t relent. He pressed his face to Hux’s neck and breathed in the scent of his squirming, fucked-out body, then licked the length of Hux’s throat as if to calm him. Hux resented it but deflated, tilting his head so Ren could get access to better spots, the best ones. Ren had left marks by then. They were faint, and Hux had forgotten how to care about his appearance anyway. He felt like he was in some wizard’s evil mind trap, and that if he could only remember why he’d ever wanted to climb out of it he’d be free. 

“I laughed because I was relieved that you’ve thought of it, too,” Ren said, murmuring this into Hux’s ear after he’d gnawed on the lobe. They’d gotten into the habit of idly chewing on each other, both still overcome by a compulsion to consume the person who held them close.

“Thought of what?” 

“Everyone bowing to us.” 

“Everyone.” Hux scoffed as if the concept was absurd: not that they would be bowed to but that there was any way for even the most powerful ruler to attain a galaxy-wide reverence. “I’d settle for a collection of wealthy systems. The rest could just fear us. Me, I mean. That is-- The Order.” 

“So practical in your fantasies of galactic domination.” 

Ren was smiling against Hux’s cheek: Hux could feel it, the bump of Ren’s particularly crooked tooth and the way his lips twitched, eyes closed. Hux was almost glad for the chime from his comm. Something about the moment was growing swampy, pulling him down into unswimmable waters. 

It was the General. The cohort had landed on LaBounty. They were approaching the rendezvous point. Apologies for the short notice; she had just found out herself.

There was no time to make their sex den presentable, so they focused on themselves. Ren had many layers to hide beneath, plus the mask. Hux was accomplished when it came to quickly putting himself in order, but there was nothing he could about the stain of red on his cheeks at the thought of their financier seeing the place like this. No amount of cold water splashed onto his face would reduce the flush. 

Three figures came to the door: a pair of guards in shiny, ostentatious red armor and a very tall, very old man in even more ostentatious robes. Flowing silver with an emerald trim, they brushed across the floor as he entered and introduced himself. Snoke looked like he’d been both melted and chewed on, but he wielded his frightening visage like a weapon, with pride that made Hux feel like he was the grotesque one. And he was, he had been: such a fool, undone by a few days in isolation with an attractive man who’d needed to do little more than open his legs to seduce Hux into near ruin. 

“You resemble your father,” Snoke said, addressing Hux. There was no mistaking it for anything but an insult, and Hux nodded in agreement. This, these last few shameful cycles spent rolling about in his own filth: it was very like Brendol indeed. 

“Sir,” Hux said. The honorific felt inadequate, a poor substitute for some dry and sour other thing at the back of his throat that he couldn’t spit out. He knew Snoke aimed to take over the Order entirely and that he had the means. Hux had expected to sneer at him at least internally, to be coldly professional in the face of Snoke’s unfortunately accurate assumption that he could buy his own army. He hadn’t expected to feel like he could barely breathe for standing in the same room as Snoke, or like he had shrunk three feet. “The General has prepared a confidential dossier--” 

“There’s no need,” Snoke said with a wave of his hand. His gaze slid to Ren, and Hux looked at Ren for the first time since this air-sucking convoy had entered their room. With the mask in place, Hux could only imagine he sensed that Ren’s energy had also withered in Snoke’s presence, and that he was similarly ashamed of what they had done. “I have asked my apprentice to appraise your organization’s worthiness,” Snoke said, watching Ren as if he was sighted prey. “And so? What say you of this endeavor, Kylo Ren?”

“Your interests would be well-served by partnering with the Order,” Ren said. 

Through the vocoder he sounded like a droid, not just in cadence but in spirit. Hux thought of the nanny droid that cared for him until he was deemed too old for such things. How he had imagined it had loved him and how he had realized, eventually, in hindsight, that it was only performing its duty as programmed. 

Ren left with Snoke and his guards that day. Hux returned to the _Finalizer_ alone. He was promoted to General not long afterward, the youngest in Order history and younger than any on record who had served the Emperor. He worked with Ren occasionally in the years that followed and held nothing about their time on LaBounty against him. It had been an instructive if embarrassing interlude for both of them: a kind of last temptation toward a life that neither of them actually wanted, of course. Hux felt the chill of Snoke’s stare every time he looked at Ren, who never removed his mask in Hux’s presence after their unpunished disgrace. Hux was comfortable with the durasteel that surrounded him, with the strength that his laser-focused ambitions provided, and the safety of handling any bothersome physical needs that arose with his own hands. Once he was General, there were no partners available who didn’t represent grave liability-- And after all, that had always been true. Hux had willfully forgotten this when the rogue self-destructive impulse that had secretly survived within him rose up and sunk its fangs into skin, leaving behind a scar that still itched at him sometimes, usually when Ren was aboard his ship, even if they did not have occasion to meet before Ren departed with his Knights again. 

Along with this itch Hux nursed a vague belief that Snoke had engineered what happened on LaBounty for some purpose, and in the initial years of his term as General he suspected sabotage was forthcoming, but he eventually came to believe, when Snoke continued to trust him with the Order’s most vital projects, that it had to be something far more elaborate than that, if Snoke had ever cared at all about what went on between Hux and Ren.

Hux wondered about this again as he ran toward Ren's signal on the deteriorating surface of his life's work. Did Snoke see into the future long ago? Rumors that Snoke either could or could not use the Force himself contradicted each other, and of course Hux had never asked. Did Snoke foresee that Hux would run that much faster, harder, and with more determination than any random trooper would be able to muster as he sought the bloodied heap of Ren upon the snow on Starkiller that day? 

Whatever the case, intentional or random or somewhere between, Hux didn’t care when he fell to his knees and pulled as much of Ren’s sodden weight into his arms as he could hold. He screamed for his troopers, who had fallen behind while Hux made his mad dash through this dying world. Ren was looking up at Hux when he turned back, eyes shining with brokenness, begging, and only then did Hux see it, though he had glimpsed Ren’s bare face several times in the past few days, experiencing each glimpse of him like a gut punch. 

They had both held those days on LaBounty so close for so long. Hux wasn’t even sure he would remember it when the fires had been put out and they were pushed back into the roles they were asked to play, set back onto the paths they had pretended they’d chosen. He put his forehead against Ren’s, breathed in the scent of Ren’s blood and sweat and felt himself allowing the loss of Starkiller to recede already. Then the troopers arrived to help, and in helping they pulled him away from Ren. 

Hux was good at adapting, however. Well-versed in shifting orders. Once they were on the shuttle, watching the last of Starkiller destruct as they flew away, he moved to Ren’s side. Ren was weak, shaking hard. He put his hand on Hux’s thigh. Hux pressed closer and thought of all those in the galaxy who would survive their wrath bowing to them. Everyone. 

 

**


End file.
